Had an encounter today with some weird guy, today. The thing is, this wasn't an isolated incident with this particular person. A few months ago I was at a local book store, reading an article in a magazine about mentors, where different actors/musicians/etc talked about people who mentored them. While I'm reading, some guy approaches me from the side and asks me what I'm reading. At first I thought maybe it was one of the people who worked there, some guy who straightens up the magazines. So I said "what?", and he walked to the other side of me and repeated the question. Reluctantly I told him what it was about. He then said "So, who was your mentor in life?", and I looked over at him. He's young, about mid to late twenties, Asian. Fairly well dressed, but had kind of rough facial hair. Given how personal the question was, my first instinct was that he was a missionary, who usually have a phony, friendly attitude, so I asked him "why?" He then said "what, is it a crime to ask someone who their mentor was?", and gave this nervous laugh, and I started to think there was something off about him. I kind of muttered something, and went back to reading. He then said "I'm sorry, are these questions making you uncomfortable?:, and laughed the same nervous laugh, and I kind of smiled, and say no, I'm just trying to read. So he picked up a magazine, and with a casualness that sounded forced, asked me what it had to say about mentors. Fed up, I asked him if he wanted to read it, and he said sure, in the same kind of put on casualness, and I handed him the magazine, and walked away, pretending to browse the books, and left the store. The experience bothered me, because I don't like strangers trying to make conversation with me, and the guy was being overly familiar. I always seem to attract the weridos.

I then saw him a second time, same place, around the same time, a few months later. Because the magazine rack doesn't face the exit, you can't really see when someone approaches, until they're in your peripheral vision. So I was standing there, reading some magazine, and I can kind of sense someone behind me. He then stands next to me, and I quickly glance over, and it's the same guy. "What are you reading?", he asks. No "hello" or "excuse me". Just right into it, same weird casualness like we're just shooting the breeze. So I tell him nothing, just flipping through it, and he says something like "oh, I thought you were reading something", and I say no, put back the magazine, and leave. And I gave a sideways glance, and it seemed like he was looking back, but I left the store, and decided to keep my distance from the place. Until today.

So I was back at the magazine rack, just kind of browsing. I had a paranoia that I might see him again, so any time someone walked by, I looked up, expecting it to be him. And then it was. I just see someone in my peripheral, sidling up to me. I glance over quickly, and it's him. I immediately put down the magazine, and walk away, and with my back turned he says "read anything good, in there?", and I turn back and say no, and continue walking, awkwardly making my past a pair of women who were standing in a narrow path right next to the books. I don't know if this guy talks to everyone, and I now assume this store has become a regular haunt for him, but I've decided to stop going there because of him. I don't think he's hitting on me, but he just seems like a sketchy guy with no social skills, and I while I should probably have just told him I didn't want to talk to him, given his weird attitude when I first encountered him, I feel like that might have escalated things, and I don't have any idea how mentally stable he is. But it kind of made me think of when women talk about guys hitting on them, how creepy and uncomfortable it can be, and I can now sympathize. Because I wouldn't someone to think of me like I do this guy.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

That sucks, t3cii. I've always felt like an easy target for those kinds of people, as I seem to attract them a lot. I guess it's because normally I'm very nice and approachable (although there are many people who get the first impression of me as someone who'd think keep to himself, and people who get to know me a little better tell me I sometimes lack tact), but it's always a very uncomfortable experience. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy lacked some social skills. In my experience with people like that, they tend to have a lot of repetitive behaviors. I agree, sometimes that's the same reason why it can be uncomfortable to approach girls. I think the key is that if the girl seems like she's not enjoying having that conversation, to leave her alone. It's how it is with everyone, really.

Funny that you mention this. Yesterday at the movies (as part of the story I told on the Last Movie you Watched thread) during 5cm per second, a guy sat next to me. He looked like a teen. He seemed to be sobbing throughout the movie, and it is sad, but I couldn't tell if he was actually crying or just playing around. I gave it leeway because again, it is a sad movie. But after a while during the movie, he kept slurping on his soda and making these very annoying sounds. I thought "Okay, he's finishing his soda. He'll be done soon." But nope, he kept it. I turned to him and said "Dude, you're done with your soda. Leave it alone or get a refill." And he quieted down the rest of the movie. I came off angrier than I wanted to, but it worked.

After the movie was over, my friend and I went to a bookstore and while we were browsing, this same guy came in and said out loud to the cashier "Do you have a book that's overrated like Twilight? It's for a stupid girl." He kept pushing the point and suddenly he left. It was here when I realized it was a big guy and he could probably kick my ass, but he was a fucking kid. He couldn't be any more than 18 years old. What saddens me is that he's the kind of guy that seems to be part of the whole GamerGate thing: Very low social skills and sexist to boot. It upsets me because this is the kind of guy who's probably going around in his life wondering why no one wants to fuck him, but he keeps insulting women. And not that being a virgin or not validates anyone as a person, but being an asshole and annoying people isn't going to get you anywhere. I really wonder why that kind of crowd is so attracted to anime and things like that.

That sucks, t3cii. I've always felt like an easy target for those kinds of people, as I seem to attract them a lot

And with me, it's almost always dudes. Like, where are the people with poor social skills that also happen to look like Jessica Alba?

The worst was quite a long time ago, when I was on the subway, when some guy sitting close by was asking where the nearest used book store was. I didn't' really know of any, so I told him I couldn't help him. And he said that was okay, and he was pleasant about it, but the reason he was asking, he said, was because he needed school books, because he couldn't go to school. The reason being, because he heard voices in his head. Just one of those conversations that quickly goes into uncomfortable territory very quickly.

But for me, it's the over familiarity that rubs me the wrong way. Like this one guy who sat opposite of me on the subway, who was asking me questions, prying into my personal life, eventually saying "gee, you're a hard guy to talk to, heh heh...". Yeah, no shit. I don't want to talk to some guy who looks like he might have a few bodies of young men buried in his basement.

And sometimes it's from people who just mean well. Like there are a lot of people who collect for charity, who position themselves on either side of the sidewalk making them unavoidable. But their approach is a turnoff. I'd rather people be upfront and tell me what they want, not try to start up inane conversation. "How about this weather, huh? I see it looks like you bought something. Cool! I like to buy stuff too. So, are you familiar with Jesus Christ?...".

TheMovieDude wrote:

After the movie was over, my friend and I went to a bookstore and while we were browsing, this same guy came in and said out loud to the cashier "Do you have a book that's overrated like Twilight? It's for a stupid girl."

Not that similar, but reminds me of this guy I once saw in another book store, years ago. He had this really weird voice, and was asking one of the employees where they kept the "inappropriate magazines". This was back when the store sold porno mags. It was just the word he used, "inappropriate", that struck me as funny.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

What's interesting to me is that I'd face most of these situations in El Paso. Especially on the bus. There was an old lady that apparently had Tourette's or something, and she'd always stand in front of the stop and yell at passing cars, or turn around and fart at them. And I remember this one time where I was talking to this older guy who went to my school, and this old looking white guy approached us and started talking. My classmate didn't understand him, so I talked to him in Spanish, and the guy was like "You're in America. Speak English." We just left.

And my experience with missionaries and the like is always exactly the same. It's always creepier than it should be. In Canterbury, I was approached by a few and I felt like what they really wanted to do was to sell my organs in the black market or something like that.

I sympathize with both of you guys. And while I'd like to think I would've been more forward with Mr.Magazine-Rack, and told him to buzz off, I don't think I would've in reality.I'm fairly reserved. Although I might've handled it differently, the end result might've been rather similar. Nevertheless, I think I'm less opposed to strangers striking up conversation with me, in fact sometimes I even like it. For my own 2 cents though, the first time I took the bus to my job on my first day of work at GameStop in like... October of last year, the only seat on the bus was next to this harmless looking old guy. He looked like he was in pain so I asked if he was okay. 90% of everything he said was unintelligible, but I was able to make out "slipped disc" and "bad back". I sympathized briefly, and then stuck my ear buds in to listen to some music. The guy gestured for my attention after a minute, and started mumbling again, and I courteously smiled and nodded- because wtf else could I do, I didn't even understand him. After he seemed done with his line of dialog, I put my ear buds back in with very obvious motions so that he could clearly see I wasn't interested in talking. Anyways, it worked for a while until the bus made a stop about five or ten minutes later. Two really pretty girls got on, they looked young though. Like, under the age of consent young. I just had the worse feeling this old guy was gonna try and get my attention again, and sure enough, he did his little hand wave- and I don't fucking know why I didn't just ignore him, but I didn't. I politely took my ear buds out and gave him my attention. He leans in towards me and mumbles something while pointing at the girls, then flashes me this wink and the dirtiest smile imaginable. Then he stared at them with that same dirty look the entire time. I don't think they even noticed they were too busy gossiping and playing games on their phones, but his stare was so deeply creepy and perverted that it physically bothered me. I had this pit in my stomach just from being close to the guy. He stopped seeming like a harmless old guy and I was getting legitimate deviant vibes from this guy. These girls were pretty, but young enough that anyone older than them would literally just see silly kids. This old guy made me so insanely uncomfortable. I wish I would've said something but... I didn't.

I took the bus again for the second or third day of work and he was asleep in the back of the bus. I gathered he was a regular on that route and stopped taking the bus altogether just to avoid him. It was one of the most uncomfortable situations I've ever been in.

closest thing to this i have is over the summer, when i went to my friend's house via train (we were going down to dc to visit another friend who is down there for school), and the first thing i notice is this dude with a parrot on his shoulder. sure enough, the man is drunk and rambling in spanish with some english, and starts chatting between his friend next to him and other people sitting around him, including me. now me, being a gringo for the most part, only noticed a few words he was saying, so i did the good ol' smile and nod approach, pretending i could understand his spanglish, and giving a smile when he seemed to say something funny. so, this goes on for maybe half an hour, when finally one of the employees tells him that because his parrot isn't in a cage he has to get off. just before the guy gets off, he looks straight at me and says, "you see the shit i have to put up with?" and then gets off the train. it kind of left me in awe, as that was pretty much the only thing he said clear enough for me to understand. got pics on fb if you want to see the bird.

what i mean by fun is more-so that nothing to those extents ever happen around here, which makes things dreadfully dull and boring, and i wonder why i'm still living here.

Why would you want stuff like this to happen to you? It's uncomfortable and unpleasant. I'd willingly trade the fact I have a story to tell for it to have never happened in the first place.And if you think getting creeped on by weird people makes things any less dull or boring, you're sorely mistaken lol.